


love delivered in 30 minutes or less

by shadowtraveled (meteorfest)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M, great love song war 2k15
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-22 01:06:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3709295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meteorfest/pseuds/shadowtraveled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After breaking up with his boyfriend, Mitchell orders a pizza and accidentally confesses his love to the boy on the other end of the line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love delivered in 30 minutes or less

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Allarica](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allarica/gifts).



> This is all Allarica's fault, she sent me the original posts by princeharrehs on tumblr that are the inspiration for this fic. As usual, with any Love Song fic I write, Mitchell is heavily influenced by Allarica’s RP portrayal of him.

Pizza wasn’t exactly Mitchell’s go-to binge food, but after the break up with Travis, he’d called his sisters - half-sisters, really; they all knew their mother got around - and asked them to come over to cheer him up with a movie marathon and mindless chatter. Piper and Lacy both agreed to come over to help their brother feel better and, after the first couple of movies, decided that the only thing missing from their little get-together was pizza. Of course, that led to a small argument over what kind of pizza, where to order it from, who would pay for it, etc.

Eventually, they settled on a veggie delight pizza, since Piper was a vegetarian and Mitchell was not about to think about how many calories were in any other kind of pizza. Mitchell decided to call the one pizza place he knew by association - his friend, Nico, had a job working delivery at Hearthside Pizza- and he had the phone in his hand as Piper dug through her pockets for the cash, having agreed to pay for it, since it was her idea in the first place. Mitchell dialed the number from the business card Nico had given him when he’d first started working at the shop.

“Hearthside Pizza, this is Will,” came an answer after a couple of rings. Mitchell couldn’t help noting the smooth tone of Will’s voice; one of the first things he noticed about anyone he talked to was the sound of their voice. Will sounded pleasant, his voice carrying the lightest hint of a Southern accent, cheerful and comforting. “How can I help you?”

Mitchell rattled off the previously agreed upon order of the veggie delight pizza, breadsticks, and two bottles of soda, one root beer, one Diet Coke. Will confirmed the order, all business on the other end of the line, and calculated the total, giving Mitchell a sum and asking for the address for delivery. Once all the details were exchanged, Will promised a delivery time of thirty minutes.

“Thanks,” Mitchell told him, as courtesy. His father had raised him to be polite to people, especially people working in the food industry. Then, on instinct, he added, “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” came the immediate response.

There was a moment’s pause and Mitchell realized his blunder. He was so used to ending phone calls with the words, having said them to Travis many times while they were dating. They’d broken up only a couple of days ago and, already, that instinct was embarrassing him, saying it to a complete stranger. Mitchell could feel his face heating up with his mortification and he tried to come up with an excuse.

“S-sorry! Force of habit, I - ah, I don’t - “

Will gave a soft laugh on the other end of the line. “Don’t worry about it,” he reassured Mitchell. “I just hope you’re not expecting a discount just because we confessed our undying love for each other.”

If someone could blush so much their head exploded, Mitchell was sure he was close to that point. His cheeks were hot and he was sure his entire face was as red as the shirt Lacy was wearing that day. “I - I’m not! I just - ”

“I’m teasing, chill. It’s no big deal. I work at a pizza parlor. I get it all the time.”

That really didn’t help, but Mitchell was going to let it go. He was sure that his face was bright red and his heart was pounding, so let his humiliation end there. He stammered a goodbye and quickly hung up before Will could comment further, then headed to the hallway to just take a few minutes to calm down. It was bad enough he’d embarrassed himself by telling the guy taking pizza orders “I love you”, but he’d also stirred up his still shattered feelings for his ex-boyfriend. Right now, he just needed a bit of time to compose himself, before he went back to join his sisters again.

By the time he was done fighting back tears, had washed up, and made sure he didn’t look like he’d been trying (and mostly failing) not to cry, Piper and Lacy had moved from his bedroom into the living room, bringing the collection of movies with them. The two of them had dragged in blankets from Mitchell’s room, the guest room, and the linen closet, and were in the middle of bringing out as many pillows and cushions as they could find. The couch, coffee table, and armchair had all been rearranged for the maximum amount of room in front of the large-screen television and Lacy was arranging all the pillows Piper had brought, very clearly creating what amounted to the Parthenon of pillow forts.

“C’mon, Mitchell!” she told him, tossing him a pillow. “Pizza should be here soon, but you can help until then!”

Mitchell caught the pillow and gave her a smile. It had been a long time since he’d built a pillow fort. He and his half-sisters used to do it whenever one of them was feeling down - the last time they’d done it was after finding out that Lacy’s father had died; Mitchell, Piper, and a couple of their other siblings (yes, they were well aware that their mother had a lot of children, no need to rub it in) had gathered together to build a pillow fort to comfort their youngest sister by being there for her, snuggling up in a puppy pile, and marathoning their favorite Disney movies together.

And now, they were doing it for him. Mitchell couldn’t help feeling better, just because of that. So he helped build the pillow fort, setting up the blankets, and soon forgetting all about the slip up on the phone and the emotional roller coaster it had sent him on.

The intercom buzzed just as they finished setting up the pillow fort and were about to pick out the next movie to watch. Mitchell got up immediately, despite Piper’s protest that, since she was paying, she should get the door, and set off to greet the deliverer; he knew his building was on Nico’s delivery route, so he was going to take advantage of it to talk to his friend for a few minutes. Sure enough, when he opened the door, Nico was there.

“I’m surprised you actually ordered pizza,” Nico told him. He started to hand the pizza and breadsticks over to Mitchell, but Piper showed up behind her brother to take it instead. “I thought it wasn’t on your diet.”

“Yeah, well, you know.” Mitchell gave a shrug, taking the bottles of soda Nico picked up from the floor. “I just broke up with my boyfriend, I can break up with my diet at the same time.”

Nico gave him a sympathetic look, nodding his head. “Fair enough.” Piper came back to pay for the order, plus a good tip for Nico, and he thanked her before turning back to Mitchell. He reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a napkin, folded carefully into the shape of an envelope. “I was asked to pass this on, by the way.”

Mitchell took the napkin, one eyebrow raised. “Seriously?” His thoughts went back to the slip up on the phone and he inwardly groaned. “I hope it’s not your co-worker’s phone number.”

Nico shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t open it.”

Mitchell started to unfold the napkin, fingers slipping under the folds to make sure he didn’t tear it. He held up the napkin to read the scrawled message on it, always needing to have things close to read them. It wasn’t terribly difficult to read, even with Mitchell’s dyslexia. The handwriting was a careful, gentle cursive, with ample space between words and letters both and, off-handedly, Mitchell wondered if the writer was dyslexic, too; he’d been taught cursive to help with his dyslexia and preferred it when others used it. As he read the note, a smattering of pink colored his cheeks.

> _“This is sort of cheesy, but you are one supreme slice._
> 
> _\- Will_
> 
> _PS: You sound adorable when you’re flustered!”_

“Want me to take a reply back?” Nico asked, a sly little grin on his lips. Mitchell inwardly cursed his friend for taking amusement in his embarrassment. “It wouldn’t be much trouble.”

Mitchell shook his head. He was not about to get into some kind of weird, flirty napkin note swap with a complete stranger. Just because he’d slipped up on the phone and this guy, Will, thought it would be fun to send him a note, it didn’t mean there was going to be anything further than that.

Nico almost seemed disappointed, but he let it go. “Then I should go. I’ve got a couple more deliveries to go before my shift’s over.” He picked up the carrying bag from the pizza that he’d set down and reached out to touch his hand gently to the other boy’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m sorry things with Travis didn’t work out. If you want to hang out sometime, give me a call.”

Mitchell nodded and gave a small smile. “Why do you think I called the pizza place you work at?”

“To try to get me in trouble with the boss, probably,” Nico replied, giving a soft laugh. “Joke’s on you, Hestia loves me.”

Nico waved a goodbye and headed back down to the building lobby to leave. Mitchell went to join his sisters, who’d finally settled on watching a classic feel-good movie - Disney’s _Hercules_ , to be exact; despite mythological inaccuracies, all of them enjoyed it for the songs and animation. They had their pizza, split the soda between them, and for once, MItchell decided to screw it all and eat as many breadsticks as he pleased. Ultimately, the day spent with his sisters helped him cheer up immensely and he was thankful that he had them.

* * * * *

The incident on the phone was forgotten quickly, as was the napkin note that Will had sent to him with Nico. Mitchell had tossed the napkin on the desk in his bedroom and forgotten about it by the end of the day. Over the next week, as he returned to his usual schedule of classes at the local university and working with the clubs he was in, he had no time to dwell on embarrassing phone calls or cheesy - ugh - notes scribbled on napkins.

Getting over Travis was much easier when Mitchell’s friends didn’t give him much room to grieve the broken relationship. They kept him busy, hanging out with him, going out to lunch with him during the break between classes. Rachel, one of his fellow members of the fashion club, took him out shopping for the spring fashion show they were putting on later in the semester. An art major, Rachel was one of the more creative and inspiring members of the club and she was easy to get along with, so Mitchell enjoyed her company a lot.

“Are we still on for this weekend?” Rachel asked as they got in line to purchase the fabrics they’d collected during their latest raid.

Mitchell looked up at her with a raised eyebrow. “For - ?”

“The design party,” Rachel prompted. She tucked a stray lock of her red curls behind her ear and pulled out her card to pay. “Remember? Silena, Michael, and I are coming over with our models to work on designs this weekend.”

“Oh! Yeah, we’re still on,” Mitchell assured her. “What time will you guys be over?”

“Let’s go with eleven,” Rachel replied. She thanked the cashier, took her bags, and waited for Mitchell to make his own purchase. “We’ll work on the designs, have some lunch, then figure out what to do next after that. I’ll make sure everyone knows what time and where to go.”

“Sounds good.”

Once they’d made their purchases, Rachel took Mitchell over to Starbucks to buy him a coffee and pastry before they took everything back to his place. Rachel helped put everything away in the guest room, making sure all of it was sorted correctly so they didn’t lose track of anything. They talked excitedly about the fashion show as they sorted the fabrics, double-checking their lists of requests from Silena and Michael. Rachel gave Mitchell a tight hug before she left, promising to see him at school and at the gathering on Saturday.

* * * * *

The design party was a little more than expected. Rachel had brought her model, Percy - Mitchell knew both of them from the summer camp they’d all worked at during high school, but Rachel had been friends with Percy, where Mitchel knew him mostly by association. Percy, in turn, had brought his friend, Annabeth - actually his ex-girlfriend, but they were still on pretty good terms - since she was in town. Silena brought Charles, her model and boyfriend, and she’d convinced her best friend, Clarisse, to come. Clarisse was a surprise, since the girl didn’t seem at all interested in fashion, but she admitted that Silena had asked her to substitute for another model, who’d needed to drop out of the project because of time restraints.

Mitchell’s model was _supposed_ to be Travis, but since they broke up and the tension would have ruined the show, Travis had left a message with Rachel that he was dropping out of the project. Rachel and Michael - an older student transferring from New Rome University who’d joined the fashion club late, mostly to fill a quota for his degree - had recruited one of the local high schoolers to model for Mitchell, a sweet junior girl named Hazel. Mitchell looked her over when she arrived, taking in her dark skin, molten gold eyes, and dark auburn curls and smiled at her.

“You’ll be a great model,” he told her. He’d have to completely redo his designs, since he’d started with a collection for a male model, but they had the whole day to come up with something. Mitchell took Hazel’s hand and led her into the apartment, to the room where the others were gathered. “C’mon, let’s get down to business!”

It turned out that Hazel was much more animated than Travis was about this project. She was an artist herself and had plenty to say when Mitchell asked for her input. She helped him pick out a new color palette to work with, as well as a new theme for the three outfit collection they’d be presenting for the show. Mitchell had originally been going for a sort of 1930s gangster theme for Travis, but Hazel favored a mythological theme.

“You’ll look like a goddess,” Mitchell told her, grinning as they went over the first few sketches. He tapped his pencil against his sketchpad three times, once over each aspect of the theme. “Goddess, warrior, and dryad.”

“Think we can pull this off in the time we have?” Hazel asked. She looked over the sketches again and pulled out her own sketchbook to copy them for modifying on her own. Mitchell had given her permission to make changes to anything and given her his e-mail address so they could swap ideas over the next couple of months. “It’s a lot of work and a lot of money.”

Mitchell waved his hand. “Don’t worry, we can do this. Leave the details to me, Hazel.”

“Hey, Mitchell!” Percy called from the other side of the room, cutting into the conversation. “Rachel says you’re supplying lunch. What’s your plan?”

Mitchell blinked. He’d totally forgotten about lunch, but as he glanced at the clock on the wall, he realized that it was well past noon, almost one o’clock, and it was a good time to break for lunch. “Oh, ah, lemme grab my phone and I’ll call for something.”

“Order some pizza!” Percy suggested with a grin.

“You _always_ want pizza,” Annabeth told her friend, rolling her eyes. “Mitchell, just ignore him.”

“Hey!”

Mitchell gave a shake of his head. “It’s alright. Pizza’s quick and we’ve still got a lot to do.” He stood up and started for his room to pick up his phone from his dresser, where he’d left it, before coming back out to take orders. “I’m ordering from Hearthside, what does anyone want?”

Hazel suppressed a giggle. “I’m good with anything, but make sure they send Nico to deliver.”

Mitchell raised an eyebrow. “You know Nico?” He was surprised, since Nico had never mentioned anyone named Hazel before. Then again, they were mostly casual friends; Nico was a high school senior that took advanced classes at the university and was in English 101 with him.

“He’s my half-brother,” Hazel explained. “I just want to let him know when I’ll be coming home.”

“Oh.” Mitchell filed the information away, planning to tease Nico about not telling him about Hazel before, and continued taking orders before dialing.

“Hearthside Pizza, we’ll be with you in just a moment.” Mitchell felt his face warm up at the sound of the same voice as the last time he’d called. He silently prayed to any deity that might be listening that Will didn’t recognize his voice. It was a minute or two later before Will spoke again, that same smooth, comforting voice coming through the speaker of Mitchell’s iPhone. “Sorry about the wait. This is Will, how can I help you?”

“Hi,” Mitchell replied. “I need three large pizzas; one pepperoni, one veggie delight, and a Hawaiian. Add two orders of breadsticks and two bottles of Coke, one Diet Coke.”

There was a moment’s pause as Will processed the order, then gave Mitchell a total. Mitchell thanked him, relayed Hazel’s request that Nico be sent on the delivery, and finally, gave a sigh of relief as Will ended the call with an estimated time of delivery, not once giving any indication that he recognized Mitchell’s voice. Mitchell turned off his phone and set it down on the table where he and Hazel were working and they soon got back to work, designing some secondary designs, in case the first ones turned out to be too difficult.

Mitchell was measuring Hazel for size when the intercom rang. Both of them dropped what they were doing and headed for the door. Nico was waiting outside, carrying the three ordered pizzas, with the doorman from the lobby carrying the rest of the order, as he’d kindly offered to help the slight-framed teen get everything up to the penthouse apartment so Nico wouldn’t have to make two trips.

“Wait, what are you doing here?” Nico asked Hazel, blinking at the girl. He handed the pizzas to Mitchell, who took them to the side to set on the table in the entryway. Hazel took the soda from the doorman and thanked him for helping. “I thought you were with Michael today.”

“I am,” Hazel replied. She nodded her head towards the living room, where Michael was currently discussing the cross-country rivalry between New Rome University and New Athens University, where the group gathered attended. “We’re doing something for the university fashion show and I’m modeling for Mitchell, so I’m here.”

Nico wrinkled his nose and looked to Mitchell. “You didn’t say my sister would be modeling for you.”

“I didn’t know until this morning,” Mitchell explained, defending himself. He handed Nico the cash to cover the order and Nico’s tip. He then looped his arm over Hazel’s shoulders, tugging the girl into a one-armed hug. “You didn’t say you had an adorable little sister with excellent color theory.”

Hazel blushed and smiled. “Nico’s a very private person. Besides, I only live with him on weekends.”

“And you’re spending your Saturday here with us, instead of your beloved brother?” Mitchell’s voice dripped with over-dramatic shock.

“He has work,” Hazel pointed out, gesturing to Nico. She pointed at his uniform and the bag he’d carried the pizzas up in. “Poor guy, can’t hang out with us and have some fun today.”

Nico shook his head. “If you two are just going to tease me, I’m leaving. I should, anyways, I’m on the clock.”

Hazel laughed and leaned in to give her brother a quick kiss on the cheek. “Alright, alright,” she said. “I relent.”

Percy chose that moment to appear in the entryway. “What’s taking so long to bring the pizza in?” he asked. He caught sight of the three at the door and grinned. “Hey, Nico!”

“Does everyone here know Nico?” Mitchell asked, giving a pout. “Nico, you didn’t tell me you were so popular!”

“I’m not, I just deliver to his place sometimes,” Nico explained with a shrug. Mitchell caught sight of a blush beginning to color Nico’s cheeks and gave a grin. He suspected Nico might deliver more than just pizza to Percy’s apartment, by the smile on Percy’s face and the pink darkening Nico’s freckled cheeks. Nico smiled softly at Percy, giving a small wave, before turning back to Hazel and Mitchell as Percy grabbed the pizza to take into the other room. “I have to get back to my deliveries. How long are you holding my sister hostage, Mitchell?”

“Until you wire me five thousand dollars and let me cut your hair,” Mitchell replied promptly.

“You’re not cutting my hair,” Nico retorted.

Hazel pouted at her brother. “Am I not worth five thousand dollars and a haircut?”

“Mitchell, what have you done to my sister?”

Mitchell gave a grin and playfully shoved Nico back towards the elevator that would take the other boy back down to the lobby. “I’ve let her be herself,” he told Nico. “You go get back to your deliveries. I’ll have my driver take Hazel home when we’re done, if Michael’s not giving her a ride back.”

“I’m getting a ride with Rachel, actually,” Hazel spoke up. “We’re going out to a movie after this, so I won’t be home until dinner.”

“Alright,” Nico told her. He stepped ahead of Mitchell so the other boy wasn’t shoving him anymore, then dug into his pocket. “Also, Mitchell, Will asked me to give this to you.”

Mitchell stared at the folded napkin Nico pulled out of his pocket, face flushing. “Another note from him?”

“He said you sound happier than last week,” Nico told him. “I know it’s not really any of his business, but I told him you’d broken up with your boyfriend last week. And that you’re doing better.”

Mitchell didn’t unfold the note, choosing to stuff it into his pocket. He’d read it later. “Yeah, it’s not really any of his business.”

“He won’t say anything about it. He’s just a friendly guy who was concerned.”

Mitchell waved off the comment. “He’s a stranger to me, Nico. He doesn’t need to know details about me.”

“Actually, he goes to the university,” Nico pointed out. “He was in our English class for the first couple of days before he switched to a different teacher and he’s in my Calc class.”

Mitchell blinked. “Really? Huh.” He gave a shrug and started pushing Nico back towards the elevator. “Still, I’d appreciate it if he didn’t know the minute details of my personal life.”

“Noted.” Nico shook his head and headed into the elevator. “I’ll see you in class on Monday.”

Mitchell nodded and waited until the door of the elevator shut before going to rejoin his friends. They’d already gotten out dishes and were dividing up the pizza and soda, taking a well-deserved break from designing, measuring, and - in Rachel’s case - already working on patterns. The group chatted loudly among themselves as they ate, joked around, and Rachel grabbed her iPod to turn on some upbeat music.

Hours passed and, eventually, everyone started to head out. Rachel was the last to leave, hanging back to talk to Mitchell quickly about the next club meeting. Even then, she didn’t stay long, just long enough to cover some details and help Mitchell clean up a little from the gathering. Once she was gone, Mitchell headed into his room to relax for a while. He flopped down onto his bed, picked up the remote from his bedside table, and switched his television on to the Food Network for background noise.

In the middle of the Cupcake Wars elimination, Mitchell remembered that Nico had handed him a napkin note from Will. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the napkin, flipping the folded note in his fingers for a long minute. He wasn’t sure he wanted to read it. Nico had assured him that Will was just a friendly guy, but the boy was a stranger; Mitchell didn’t even know what Will looked like, much less anything else about him. Why should he indulge this stranger by reading the notes he sent. The first time had been almost endearing, if a little embarrassing, but a second note…

Mitchell unfolded the napkin, letting his eyes wander over the same solid, carefully penned script that Will had written in last time. A soft smile crossed his lips as he read the note.

> _“Sorry I couldn’t say anything on the phone. Hestia doesn’t like me getting saucy with the customers._
> 
> _\- Will”_

“I bet,” Mitchell murmured.

Off-handedly, he wondered if that was any indication that there was really nothing really special about the notes Will had sent with Nico. Did Will do this to a lot of customers? Was he really just the friendly guy Nico claimed he was? Were these notes anything more than a dork working at a pizza parlor?

And why was Mitchell thinking about this so much? He’d just ended a relationship with Travis; this was no time to be thinking about what notes from a stranger could mean. He didn’t even know what Will looked like - just his handwriting looked like and what his voice sounded like. That was really no good basis for forming a crush on a guy, right?

_Right. This is ridiculous, Mitchell Reddy._

Mitchell tossed the note into the drawer of his bedside table and rolled off the bed to get his sketchbook from the other room. He might as well work on the final designs that he and Hazel had worked on that day.

* * * * *

Despite trying not to think about Will and the silly little notes he’d sent, Mitchell came up with an idea. He was going to get to know Will a little. He started to ask Nico about his co-worker, asking what Nico knew about him. Nico answered a couple of questions, but couldn’t really tell Mitchell all that much about Will.

“He’s a pre-med student,” Nico told him once.

Another time, Nico informed Mitchell that Will liked music a lot, but was utterly hopeless with most instruments. “He can play the piano pretty decently,” Nico added.

“Anyone can play the piano pretty decently with a few lessons,” Mitchell pointed out. He’d taken lessons when he was in middle school and, though he hadn’t practiced in years, could still get out a half-decent melody. “Does he sing?”

Nico shrugged. “I’ve never heard him.”

“What good are you as an informant if you can’t tell me these things?” Mitchell asked, rolling his eyes.

“I don’t _have_ to act as liaison between you two, you know,” the younger boy countered. He wrinkled his nose at his friend. “Why don’t you just come to the restaurant some time? Will works most days, so you could actually _meet him_ , instead of asking me about him.”

“Are you joking? I can’t just show up to your work and ask if the mysterious Will is working.”

“So don’t,” Nico told him. “Come in with a couple of friends, I’ll send Will to get your orders, and you can meet him and quit pestering me about him.”

Mitchell pouted and crossed his arms over his chest. “If I show up, you have to _promise_ not to tell him I’m the one he’s been flirting with via napkin.”

“He won’t know.”

Mitchell studied Nico’s face for a long moment, searching for any sort of tell that would let him know whether or not Nico meant it. Nico was usually pretty good about keeping his promises, especially when it came to secrets, but Mitchell wasn’t taking any risks. He didn’t want Will finding out who he was and thinking that Mitchell was stalking him - he wasn’t; he was just curious about the boy who kept teasing him. Finally, Mitchell gave a small sigh and nodded his head.

“Alright,” he told Nico. “Tomorrow at lunch? Around 12:30?”

Nico nodded. “Will works that shift, so we can work with that. I’ll handle everything at my end. You just show up.”

The other boy offered his hand to Mitchell to shake on the deal. Mitchell took Nico’s hand and gave him a small smile. “I’ll be there.”

* * * * *

As planned, Mitchell showed up to Hearthside at 12:30 the next day, with his friends, Lou Ellen and Miranda. The three of them were actually together in a research project for one of their classes at the university, so going out to lunch was a good way for them to go over their separate parts of the project. Each of them brought their notes with them and, as Nico led them to a booth in the corner of the restaurant, began to go over the project. Miranda and Lou Ellen slid into the booth first, sitting close to each other as they swapped notes. Mitchell took his seat on the opposite side of them and gave Nico a small nod, the signal for the other boy to send Will their way.

After looking over the menu briefly, the three friends looked over their research notes - Mitchell, admittedly, wasn’t as enthusiastic about the subject of human culture’s impacts on the environment as Lou Ellen and Miranda were, but he had to do his part of the project or fail and failure wasn’t really an option. So, while waiting for Will to show up to take the order, as Nico had said he’d arrange, Mitchell leaned over and spread his notes on the table for Lou Ellen and Miranda to look over.

Finally, a shadow crossed over the papers strewn over the table. “Sorry about the wait. My name is Will and I’ll be serving you today. What can I get you?”

Mitchell almost didn’t want to look up. Now that Will was there, did Mitchell really want to look and see the face of the boy he’d been trying to learn about? What if the boy’s face didn’t match the soothing, cheerful voice Mitchell heard over the phone? What if Will wasn’t anything like Mitchell had imagined - and he couldn’t _deny_ that he’d tried to picture what Will looked like - after getting Nico to describe him a little? Mitchell took in a slow, deep breath, and lifted his head to look up at Will -

\- and discovered two things: the first being that Nico’s description of Will did the older boy no justice whatsoever and Mitchell was going to have a good long talk with his friend about how poorly he described people; the second was that Will was _incredibly_ good-looking. Will looked like he wasn’t that much older than Mitchell - maybe a year, at most. His golden-blond hair was tousled, but not in the way that suggested he didn’t groom, more that it seemed like it naturally refused to be tamed. Light freckles were scattered over skin tanned from time spent outdoors, running under the brightest blue eyes Mitchell had ever seen in person.

Above all else, it was Will’s smile that caught Mitchell’s eyes and had his heart skipping a beat. It wasn’t the forced smile that Mitchell often saw, the one that all but cried out “I’m only smiling because I know you’ll complain to my boss if I don’t”. Will’s smile was genuine. It was clear from the way his teeth - not quite perfectly straight, not quite perfectly white - were exposed and his eyes crinkled, the blue irises lighting up.

“Mitchell, right?” Will asked, suddenly, cutting into Mitchell’s internal analysis of the other boy’s features. The smile over Will’s lips softened.

Mitchell blinked in surprise, thinking that Nico had ratted him out after all, but he couldn’t say anything without giving himself up. “How’d you - ”

“Nico talks about you a lot,” Will explained. In person, his voice carried a slightly heavier Southern accent, with a softer tone of something else under it, something Mitchell couldn’t quite place. “I saw your picture on his phone a few days ago. Sorry, it’s not too weird knowing you through my friend, is it?”

Mitchell shook his head. It made sense that Will had probably seen his picture on Nico's phone; Mitchell frequently took selfies on his friend's phone and, just to mess with the younger boy, would set his selfie as Nico's wallpaper. “N-no, that’s alright. I just didn’t think Nico talked about me.”

“He says you’re his best friend.”

“Oh.” Mitchell was a little surprised by that. Yes, he and Nico did hang out a lot, when the younger teen wasn’t in class or working, but Mitchell had never considered that the other boy thought of him as his best friend. It brought a small smile to his lips. All things considered, Nico was a pretty close friend to him as well, and Mitchell would admit that. “He’s one of mine, too.”

Will smiled and gave a nod of approval before pulling a notepad from the pocket of the apron he wore. “Formalities aside, what can I get you guys?”

Lou Ellen lifted her menu and flipped it open. “Could we get a medium vegetarian pizza and three for the salad bar?”

Will nodded again and jotted down the orders, adding drinks to the order as they ordered them. He told them it’d be about fifteen minutes for the pizza and directed them towards the salad bar before taking his leave. Before he walked away, Mitchell caught sight of Will flashing a smile at him with a wink and he felt his face flush.

_Oh, gods above, does he know it’s me?_

As Mitchell followed Lou Ellen and Miranda to the salad bar, he tried to peek into the kitchen to catch sight of Will or Nico, to see if the two of them were talking. He saw Nico at the register at the front of the restaurant, but Will was nowhere in his line of sight. Pulling his attention away from the older boy, Mitchell made up his salad and went back to the booth, taking his seat and pulling out his textbook. He wasn’t going to dwell on Will and his flirting.

_Coming here was a terrible idea._

Will brought over the drinks and, later, the pizza. He smiled at them every time he came over, chatted with Lou Ellen and Miranda, and generally did his job after that. He didn’t continue his flirting with Mitchell, though. Besides the previous smile and wink, he did nothing else. Mitchell stopped looking up when the other boy came over to check on whether they needed anything and just muttered a thanks when Will refilled his Sprite.

Will eventually became busy with other customers, going around the restaurant and taking orders from other tables as more people came into the restaurant. Mitchell put the other boy out of his mind and focused on the discussion with Lou Ellen and Miranda, instead. The girls had agreed to go to lunch with him so they could work on their project; neither of them knew about the napkin notes that Mitchell had received from Will and Mitchell didn’t really want to tell them about the notes, either. As they slowly ate their lunch, they went over their notes again, added a few things from the textbook, and wrote up an outline for their research paper.

They’d been an hour in the restaurant by the time they’d finished and Miranda waved Will over for the bill. Mitchell had said that he would pay for lunch, so he picked up the book with the bill after Will left it on the table. Miranda and Lou Ellen were packing their things up, so neither of them were really paying attention to him when he flipped open the book and discovered a napkin folded in with the bill. Mitchell snatched the napkin before either of the girls could look over to see it and stuffed it into the pocket of his jacket with a glance towards the kitchen Will had disappeared into.

 _Well, I can never show my face here again, thank you, Will,_ Mitchell thought. He pulled out his debit card and slipped it into the sleeve in the book before setting the book back on the table so he could get his things packed away in his bookbag. _I may never be able to order from here again, either._

He needed to put an end to the notes and the flirting. It didn’t matter how good-looking he thought Will was. A line needed to be drawn. Mitchell had just broken up with his boyfriend. There was a certain mourning period that needed to be observed and, besides, he had a personal rule of not dating or having a casual fling with guys who took his pizza orders.

Yeah, that was it. Personal rule.

Will came back and picked up the book. He said nothing about the napkin, just said he’d be right back, and took the book up to the register, handing it to Nico to process before heading back to the kitchen with more orders. Mitchell watched to see whether he’d come back, but it was Nico who came to the table a few minutes later with the book, Mitchell’s card, and the receipt.

“Everything go okay?” NIco asked, handing Mitchell his card back.

“Yeah, I guess,” MItchell replied. He gave a shrug and stuck his card into his wallet before tucking it into his bag. He bit his lip, letting his gaze slip towards the kitchen. “You didn’t tell Will, right?”

“Of course not. I promised, didn’t I?”

 _So he probably did recognize my voice._ Mitchell inwardly sighed and shook his head. “I think I need to stop indulging him. He’s nice, but…”

Nico gave a nod. “Want me to tell him?”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll deal with this.” Mitchell stood up from his seat and picked up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure.”

Mitchell gave his friend a small smile and joined Miranda and Lou Ellen, who’d gone ahead towards the door to leave. As he walked past the kitchen, he glanced in and caught sight of Will sharing a laugh with one of his coworkers. The other boy’s laugh was light-hearted and full, as genuinely cheerful as his smile, and it made Mitchell’s heart jump and stomach flutter.

Mitchell quickened his pace and headed out of the restaurant with his friends.

Later that afternoon, once he’d parted with Lou Ellen and Miranda, gone back to his apartment, and finished writing his part of the paper, he thought back to the meeting at the restaurant. For all he tried to tell himself he needed to end this odd little flirting game Will kept playing, he couldn’t deny that he actually kind of liked it. It was silly, but it cheered him up, even if it was a little embarrassing. For all he got flustered by the notes, they were actually kind of endearing; Will’s little jokes brought a smile to Mitchell’s lips.

The thing was, the notes were just a joke, right? Obviously, Will had sent the first note to ease the awkwardness of Mitchell’s slip up on the phone and the second one had been an attempt to poke fun at the previous interaction between them. That’s all that was to them, Mitchell was sure.

But what about the third note?

Mitchell looked over to his jacket, which he’d tossed onto his bed after getting home. Will’s note was still stuffed into the pocket, unread. Mitchell bit his lip, debating whether or not to go read it. He’d told himself that a line had to be drawn and the notes needed to stop, but he was curious to what Will wrote this time. Curiosity won out in the end and MItchell left his laptop to go over to his bed. He picked up his jacket, sprawled out on top of the covers, and pulled the note out before gently unfolding it.

This note was considerably longer than the one-line notes the previous two had been. Will’s careful, sweeping cursive was scrawled over one entire side of the napkin. It was a little cramped, the napkin being a little small for everything that Will had written, but it was all there.

> _“I’m sorry if I’ve been a little too friendly. I don’t usually write notes to customers, but the first time you called, you sounded pretty upset. I thought a little kindness would cheer you up and, when you sounded happier the next time you called, I just wanted to send you something again. I guess I thought my note helped, so another one would help more._
> 
> _I wanted to talk to you today, but since you were with your friends and I was on the clock, I didn’t really get much of a chance. I know it might be a little weird to just come out and say it, especially after Nico told me about your boyfriend, but I was wondering if you wanted to maybe go for coffee or something? Here’s my phone number, if you’re interested - xxx-xxxx_
> 
> _\- Will_
> 
> _PS: Just in case you haven’t heard it before, you’re as cute as you sound. ;)”_

Mitchell read the note over a couple of times, just to reaffirm that he’d been partially right about Will’s notes; they _had_ been part of a joke, but a well-meaning one to cheer him up. It was honestly a little sweet, actually. He was still a little on the fence on whether or not to actually draw a line and ask Will to stop, though. As sweet as Will and his notes were, what could possibly come of this? Eventually, Will would stop writing or Mitchell would stop calling for pizza - he wasn’t even that much of a pizza fan, really.

Will wanted to talk, though. Mitchell could give him that chance, right? He picked up his phone from the chest of drawers he used as a bedside table and, looking at the note, dialed Will’s number. As the line rang, Mitchell started to pick at the hem of his sweater, pulling at a loose thread as he took slow, deep breaths to calm the nerves that were beginning to get antsy.

The line eventually went to Will’s voice mail. _“Hi, this is Will. I can’t answer my phone right now, so leave me a message!”_

Mitchell was a little disappointed that all he had was Will’s voice mail, but it made some sense. For all he knew, Will was still at work or was otherwise busy. Nico had said that Will was a medical student and Mitchell knew how busy they could get.

“Hey, Will. It’s Mitchell.” Mitchell continued to pick at his sweater as he spoke, snapping one of the loose threads. “Coffee sounds great. I’m free most mornings before ten. Call me back.” He rattled off his own number and ended the message with a simple “talk to you later.”

And that was that. There was nothing else Mitchell could do about Will for now. Not until the other boy called back. He put thoughts of the other boy out of his mind and left his phone on his bedside table before leaving his room to go turn on the television in the living room. He was still anxious from the phone call and wanted to be away from his phone for a while.

Mitchell’s father was away on business a lot, leaving him mostly alone in the penthouse apartment frequently. He didn’t mind, since his father let him have free reign of the apartment, letting him invite friends over. The housekeeper, Suzanna, stayed with Mitchell most of the time, making the meals whenever Mitchell didn’t feel like ordering in or going out. She was on vacation for the week, though, so Mitchell had the choice of heating up a frozen meal - not the most appetizing or healthy option - or calling up for take out. He could go out, maybe ring up Nico to see if he was off work to join him.

It could wait for a few episodes, though.

Ultimately, Mitchell fell asleep during the third episode of _Once Upon a Time_ \- it was a repeats marathon and he’d seen them all before. By the time he woke up again, he didn’t feel like going out or calling in, so he wandered over to the kitchen and checked what was available. He grabbed a frozen dinner and tossed it in the microwave, too tired and hungry to really care about the calories. He could just walk to campus tomorrow to make up for them.

He took his dinner to his room when it was done and grabbed his phone as he sat on his bed. There were a few messages, so he listened to them. The first was just Miranda reminding him to bring his part of the paper to class the next day. The second was from Lacy, who wanted to check in on him and see how he was feeling. She asked if he wanted to go see a movie with her that weekend. He’d text her the next day and they could figure out a time and movie. The last message was from Will.

_“Hi, it’s Will. You know the little coffee shop in the Basileus building of NAU? The one Ganymede works at? Let’s meet there. Does nine sound good? I’ll be there until 9:45, then I have to head to my Calculus class. Hope to see you. Bye.”_

Mitchell gave a soft smile and exited from his voicemail before setting his phone aside again. Tomorrow, he’d make his decision about Will and whatever it was between them.

* * * * *

Mitchell’s plan was to be there early. He’d gotten up early to shower, pick out his outfit for the day, and make sure his hair looked great before going to meet Will at the coffee shop. He was out of the apartment by eight o’clock. The campus was an easy walk from his place, so he headed in that direction, his bookbag slung over his shoulder and his jacket neatly buttoned up the front to stave off the morning chill.

He got to campus with a few minutes to spare. The Basileus building - where the mathematics classes were taught at New Athens University - was across the campus from the side Mitchell entered, so he started to head across the campus. As he passed by the Agoraeus building, where all the business classes were held, he heard his name called. He turned to see Travis waving at him as he approached.

Mitchell’s heart was in his throat as Travis came up to him. “H-hey, Trav.”

“Hey,” Travis replied. He adjusted his backpack on his shoulder and gave Mitchell a small smile. “I wanted to talk to you, but you haven’t been answering your phone.”

Mitchell had been very persistent in not answering Travis’ calls since they broke up, not wanting to end up crying on the phone again. Any time he saw Travis’ number on the ID, he let it go to voicemail and then stubbornly deleted the message before he could hear his ex-boyfriend’s voice on the message. Face-to-face with the other boy now, he was determined not to let his feelings for Travis resurface to eat at him again.

“What do you want, Travis?”

“Just to talk, honest.” Travis brought his hands up in a defensive gesture, furrowing his brow in a slight pout - one that had always gotten Mitchell to pause and listen to him before.

“Travis, you’re not exactly the epitome of _honest_ ,” Mitchell pointed out. Part of why they’d broken up was because Mitchell never knew when the other boy was telling him the truth or a lie. As far as he knew, Travis had never lied to him about anything big, but the small things, the important things, like how he felt, had always felt too carefully answered to be true. “I’m supposed to meet someone. Can you make it quick?”

“Yeah, sure.” Travis ran his hand through his hair, mussing it up a little. “Look, I know we ended things pretty harshly. We both said a lot of things and I know, on my part, that I didn’t mean most of them. I want to apologize for those things.”

“Fine. Apology accepted.”

“Mitchell, don’t be like that,” Travis said. He gave a sigh. “I don’t want you to just accept a vague apology, just so you can move on quicker. I hurt you. I’m not going to ask you to forgive me for that. I just want you to know that I’m sorry for everything I said that hurt you. I loved you, but I never knew how to tell you right.”

If Mitchell’s heart had been aching when Travis had come up to him, it was now throbbing in pain. “You...did love me?”

Travis nodded, biting his lip slightly. “I did. I still do, but I know I’m not good for you. That’s why we broke up, right?”

Mitchell gave a small nod of his own. It was only part of why they’d broken up, but it was probably one of the main reasons they’d ended their relationship. “At least we enjoyed it while it lasted. Whether we were good for each other or not. We had fun.”

“Yeah.” Travis gave Mitchell a small smile, one of his sweeter ones, that had always felt real and made Mitchell’s heart flutter in his chest. This time, there was no flutter, though. Travis shouldered his bag again. “Anyways, I just wanted to clear a few things up. I know it’s been like a month, but it’s time we got closure.”

“Thanks.”

Travis paused for a moment, then stepped closer to Mitchell, reaching for his hand. “I’m still sorry for hurting you. Maybe the next guy will be better for you than I was.”

“And maybe the next guy for _you_ will be better than I was,” Mitchell replied. As much as he had loved Travis, he knew he hadn’t been good for him, either. He’d never stood his ground against Travis, enabling him to a point. “Someone’s got to keep you grounded. You’re so worried about keeping Connor out of trouble that you get into more trouble by yourself.”

Travis gave a quiet laugh. “Yeah, I know. There’s...there’s someone I’ve met who might be able to keep me out of trouble.”

Mitchell blinked. “You’re seeing someone else already?”

“For about a week,” the other boy admitted, looking a little sheepish. “Nothing official yet. I didn’t want to make anything official until I’d cleared everything up with you.”

“How thoughtful.”

“I thought you’d appreciate a little closure.” Travis shook his head with a sigh before giving Mitchell’s hand a light squeeze. “Maybe we can’t be friends like we were before, but I don’t want to just drop our old friendship.”

“We’ll have to see about that,” Mitchell told him. Regardless of their current conversation, the pain from their breakup was still there and there were too many of Mitchell’s old feelings for Travis still lingering for them to rebuild their friendship. It would take time. “I’m glad we talked about this, though. And I’m sorry I’ve been stubborn about answering your calls. It just - ”

“Still hurt, huh?” Travis guessed. “Sorry. Again. I’m not good at this, the whole talking about our feelings thing.”

“At least you’re trying,” Mitchell pointed out. “That’s a start. Work on it with the new guy, too.”

Travis nodded. “Yeah, I will. We’ll see where things with Austin go.” He let go of Mitchell’s hand, as though just realizing that he was still holding it. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his jeans and gave Mitchell a small smile. “So I’ll see you around, Mitchell.”

“Yeah.”

Travis started to turn, then pivoted back around, leaning in and pressing a light kiss to Mitchell’s lips. It was just a chaste kiss, a brush of Travis’ lips on Mitchell’s, meant as a goodbye. Mitchell’s heart skipped a beat, but the kiss didn’t leave the same lingering feeling in his chest as the ones they’d shared before.

And it ended rather abruptly when someone coughed to get their attention. Travis pulled back and turned to the newcomer, a young man around their age with blond hair streaked with pink and a pair of thin rimmed glasses propped on his nose. The other boy raised an eyebrow at Travis, his arms crossed over his chest.

“That’s enough ‘clearing things up’, don’t you think?” he asked. “We’re going to be late for class.”

“The new guy?” Mitchell looked between Travis and the newcomer.

“Yeah,” Travis replied. He gave the blond an apologetic look. “Austin, Mitchell. Mitchell, Austin.” He looked back to Mitchell and touched his hand to the other boy’s shoulder. “I’d better let you go. You said you were meeting someone, right?”

“Shit, yeah.” Mitchell brought his wrist up to check his watch. He had to get going or he was going to miss Will entirely. It was already well past the time they were supposed to meet. Mitchell threw the strap of his bag over his shoulder and started to head towards the Basileus building again. He half-turned to wave back over his shoulder before Travis headed away with Austin.

So much for a mourning period over their relationship. If Travis could move on after a little over a month, then so could Mitchell. He just needed to decide if he was ready to move on and, if he was, whether Will was the person to move on to or not. He’d meet with Will and talk to him, get to know the other boy, and see where things went from there. First, he needed to get to the coffee shop.

As he entered the Basileus building, the coffee shop was just on the right, in the corner of the entrance hall. There was an entire sectioned off area around the shop, built into one of the old offices. Tables, comfortable chairs, and a couple of couches made the area cozy, a perfect place for stressful students to unwind with a cup of coffee before class. Mitchell let his eyes wander over the area, looking for Will.

He wasn’t there.

Mitchell frowned and checked his watch. It was only 9:30. Will had said he’d be there until 9:45. Biting his lip, Mitchell headed down the hall a bit, to see if Will was around, but to no luck. He came back to the coffee shop, looked around again, and then pulled out his phone and sent a text to Will.

_“Did you leave for class already?”_

While he waited for a reply, Mitchell got in line for the shop. He might as well order something, since he was here. He could still get to his class on time, even if he stopped for coffee now. He periodically checked his phone as he moved through the line and ordered his drink, then waited for it to be made. He’d picked it up, taken a sip, and started for the exit when his phone alerted him to a new text.

_“Yeah, sorry.”_

That was it. Two words. That was all that Will sent to him and Mitchell could only assume that it meant Will was upset. They _had_ agreed to meet, after all. Will had said they could meet at nine and Mitchell had tried to be there.

 _“Sorry I missed you. Ran into someone I know.”_ Mitchell didn’t want to admit that he’d run into his ex-boyfriend. That probably would have sounded awkward. _“Maybe we can meet up another time?”_

Will didn’t respond and Mitchell didn’t really expect him to, since he’d said he’d gone to class early. He probably wasn’t supposed to have his phone on at all. Mitchell gave a sigh, took another sip of his drink, and headed for his class. If Will replied, his phone would be on. He had to put it on silent, but it’d be on.

He hoped Will would reply.

* * * * *

Mitchell went through his classes with no response from Will. In his English class at noon, he wanted to ask Nico if Will had said anything to him, remembering that Nico said that he was in the same Calculus class as the blond, but the younger teen wasn't even there that day. He quietly took his phone out and sent Nico a text to find out where he was. It turned out that Nico was at home, sick, and he asked Mitchell to text him any assignments they were given that day. He said he hadn't heard from Will, except for when the older teen had agreed to pick up his shift at Hearthside that afternoon.

So, if Will didn't reply to his text at school, Mitchell doubted he would be answering any time that afternoon, since he would be at work. Will didn't seem the type to use his phone when he was at work. Mitchell, feeling guilty for missing the meet up and a little sad that Will hadn’t replied and probably wouldn’t be anytime soon, turned his phone off and listened in to his professor’s lecture of the day, taking half-hearted notes and writing down the assignment that he’d send to Nico later.

He turned his phone back on after the class, deciding he couldn’t just leave it off all day because of Will. He had other friends who probably wanted to get a hold of him. Sure enough, there were a few texts. Rachel wanted him to swing by Percy’s for her; Hazel had asked whether she and Mitchell were still on for lunch that Friday to discuss plans for the fashion show; and his sister, Drew, had sent a sibling-wide text reminding her half-siblings that her birthday was coming up and they’d better not have plans for that day.

He was just finishing up replies to all the texts he had when a new one popped up on his screen. From Will.

_“Austin told me what happened.”_

Mitchell paused in his steps, right out of the door of the building he was leaving. A girl behind him protested and gave him a not-so-gentle shove to keep moving. Mitchell apologized and quickly moved to get out of the way, stepping over to a bench that sat to the side of the entrance.

 _“You know Austin?”_ It probably wasn’t the greatest way to reply. He should have apologized, explained himself, maybe, but his first question was how Will knew his ex-boyfriend’s new...sort of boyfriend.

 _“He’s my baby brother.”_ Somehow, from the way Will had worded the response, Mitchell got the feeling that Austin didn’t particularly appreciate being called Will’s ‘baby brother’. Judging from the look of him he’d gotten earlier, Mitchell wouldn’t put Austin as much younger than Will - a year younger, at most. _“He told me Travis ran into his ex ‘Mitchell’. Then described you.”_

Well. Mitchell pulled his lips together in a thin line. Great, the guy he liked - and he wouldn’t deny that he liked Will now - was related to the boy his ex-boyfriend was dating. He was pretty sure that broke some kind of dating code, to start going out with his ex’s boyfriend’s brother. He was sure Drew would never let him hear the end of it.

 _“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean for anything to happen.”_ Mitchell really hadn’t planned to be stopped by Travis, much less kissed by him, and definitely hadn’t planned for Austin to interrupt and then tell Will about it. _“Travis just wanted some closure.”_

According to the messaging system, Will saw the message, but it took him several minutes to reply. Mitchell sat on the bench, fidgeting with impatience and picking at the hem of his shirt, breaking the thread and pulling at it. He’d have to sew it back later, but for now, picking at the hem helped calm him down a little from his anxiety.

_“Yeah, I get that.”_

The short reply, though understanding, felt a little awkward. Mitchell bit his lip, wondering how Will actually felt about it. To be honest, he still wasn’t sure how Will felt about anything. Was Will genuinely interested in him? Had he really been serious about meeting up and how badly had Mitchell hurt him by not showing up? Did Will want to go out or be friends? He wanted to ask Will, but he wasn’t sure how to bring it up, especially since Will had found out about Travis being Mitchell’s ex.

_“Sorry. I’m really sorry I missed meeting you this morning.”_

_“Don’t worry about it.”_

Yeah, as if Mitchell could just not worry about it when he had so many questions to ask Will about what exactly was between them. He still wanted to meet up with Will, outside of Hearthside, with no napkin notes, no need to order pizza, or involve anyone else.

_“Can I make it up to you? Maybe we can meet up tomorrow?”_

Will once again took a few minutes to reply, though the message was viewed. _“Can’t. I’m busy tomorrow.”_

A minute later, he added: _“About to leave campus for work. Can’t text while driving.”_

_“OK.”_

Mitchell would leave it at that for now. He wasn’t convinced that Will had forgiven him for not coming to meet him, even with the explanation and apologies that Mitchell had given him. Will didn’t seem the type to hold a grudge, but given the circumstances, he wouldn't be surprised if Will decided not to talk to him again. After all, however it had been intended, a kiss between Mitchell and Travis could have been misconstrued in any number of ways.

He'd just have to wait to hear from Will again. He didn't want to push anything.

* * * * *

Mitchell stared at the boy who answered the door when he went over to Percy's after his last class. Rachel had asked him to drop by Percy's to pick up a couple of the older teen's coats that she was planning to recycle for the fashion show. Percy wasn't the one to answer the door, however; Nico, hastily dressed and neck covered in hickeys, was. The young Italian boy's face was flushed bright red under his long black hair as he stared back at Mitchell.

Mitchell crossed his arms over his chest. "Sick at home, huh?"

Nico cringed. "About that..."

"You _lied_ to me."

“I can explain - “

“You ditched school to bang Percy, what’s to explain?” Mitchell dropped his hands to his hips, half-glaring at his friend.

Nico quickly shushed him, reaching out and covering Mitchell’s mouth with his hands. The red of his cheeks grew darker as he desperately tried to push Mitchell away from the apartment door. “Mitchell!”

Mitchell pried Nico’s hands from his face. “Oh, like I’ve never done the same thing with one of my boyfriends.” He grabbed Nico’s wrist and pulled the other boy out into the hallway, an idea coming to mind. “Speaking of boyfriends, I need your help.”

“If this is about Will - ”

“It’s about Will.” Mitchell bit his lip, then started to pick at the hem of his shirt again - he’d probably have to redo the whole hem later, as much as he was picking at it. “Has he...ever said anything about wanting to go out with me?”

“Mitchell, you guys barely know each other.” Nico brought one hand up and brushed his fingers through his hair, pulling his bangs away from his face so his dark eyes weren’t so hidden behind his hair. “I mean, he’s asked me a little bit about you, you’ve asked me a little bit about him. You met him at Hearthside. He’s seen your selfies on my phone, since you keep setting them as my lock screen in class.”

“Hey, I make a great lock screen!”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Mitchell, the point here is that you guys don’t know each other that well and you’re asking if he wants to go out with you?”

“Yes,” Mitchell told him. He honestly wanted to know. There was obviously something he was missing on Will’s end of the odd relationship they had going between them. Notes on napkins and wanting to talk over coffee didn’t exactly point to the idea that Will just wanted to be friends. “Please, Nico, I just need to know.”

Nico crossed his arms over his chest and gave a sigh. “He asked me yesterday if it was too early after your breakup to ask you out. I told him I wasn’t sure, but told him it was worth a shot trying.”

“And I messed it up,” Mitchell muttered. He reached down for the hem of his shirt, pulling at the loose threads again. “We were supposed to meet for coffee and I ran into Travis. We talked and then Travis kissed me. In front of his new boyfriend, who turned out to be Will’s brother.”

Nico grimaced sympathetically. “So what are you going to do about it?”

“You’re going to help me get a date with Will.” Mitchell broke off the thread from his hem and flicked it away. He caught sight of Nico opening his mouth to protest and pulled his phone out, aiming the camera at Nico. “And if you don’t help me, I’m going to send a photo of those hickeys to Will as proof you lied to him to get him to cover your shift while you banged a customer.”

“...I’m listening.”

* * * * *

Mitchell and Nico couldn’t put the plan into effect until Saturday. They had discussed Mitchell’s plan, worked through the kinks, and Nico had promised to find out what Will’s work schedule was for the weekend. Nico had copied the work schedule and given it to Hazel to pass to the other boy when she met him for lunch on Friday. Hazel had no idea what her brother and friend were up to, but she wished them luck on whatever they were doing.

Saturday afternoon, Mitchell called Nico’s cell to make sure everything was set up on the younger teen’s end. Nico assured him everything was going according to plan. Mitchell was still nervous about it, though. There were any number of things that could go wrong. This whole plan could backfire on him. He hadn’t heard from Will since the day Travis had kissed him and there was no telling if this was going to have any effect on the plan. Nico had told him that Will had been busy studying for a big exam in one of his medical courses, but Mitchell was still a little worried that Will was upset with him.

The plan was simple. Mitchell would call in an order near the end of Will’s shift and Nico would arrange for Will to make the delivery. For the plan to work, Nico had to make sure that he was working the same shift as Will, which was why he had copied the work schedule and sent it to Mitchell with Hazel. The two of them had spent Friday night putting the final plan together and rehearsing everything, until both of them were sure they could play their respective parts.

Around seven on Saturday night, Mitchell picked up his phone. He knew from questioning Nico that the phone at Hearthside had caller ID to make sure they could call customers back if there was a delay in orders. Nico would be watching the ID display for Mitchell's number, then pretend to be busy and call Will to answer the phone. Mitchell dialed the number for Hearthside, heart racing in his chest and mouth slowly becoming dry as the call went through.

"Hearthside Pizza," came Will's now familiar, faintly Southern accented drawl. "This is Will, how can I help you?"

"Hi, Will," Mitchell replied. He had his rehearsed line at the ready to make his order. "It's Mitchell. I'd like a medium four-cheese pizza, an order of breadsticks, a bottle of Diet Pepsi, and maybe a date."

There was a pause on the other end of the line and Mitchell began to worry that maybe he'd drawn a line with this plan. Then he heard Will give a soft laugh.

"Well, the pizza will be there in thirty minutes," Will promised over the phone. There was a distinct tone in his voice that had Mitchell certain that the other young man was smiling. “The date might be a little late.”

 _Not if Nico does his part,_ Mitchell thought to himself, a small smile crossing his lips. “Thirty minutes, then.”

He had thirty minutes to finish his preparations for the endgame of the plan. Thanking Will, Mitchell hung up and started getting everything ready. He shortly received a text from Nico, saying that the plan was going smoothly on his end; Mitchell had given Nico enough cash to cover his pre-planned order, plus tip for both Nico and Will, so the transaction was complete before the pizza was even delivered. He’d made sure Cecil and Lou Ellen were in on the plan and had them busy so they couldn’t make the delivery. All Nico had to do now was clock out before Will did, leaving the blond teen no choice but to make the delivery himself.

So far, so good. It was all actually going better than planned. Mitchell hadn’t planned for Will to go along with his “and maybe a date” line, considering how the last few days had gone. Smiling to himself, Mitchell wandered through the apartment, rearranging a few things here and there, just to keep himself occupied. He put some pop music to fill the silence - with his father on another trip and the housekeeper off for the night, it was too quiet, but that would change later.

The doorbell rang, exactly thirty-five minutes after Mitchell had ended the call. When he opened the door, Mitchell smiled at Will, seeing the blond young man standing in the hall with Mitchell’s order in his hands. He looked Will over, taking in the leather jacket over his Hearthside t-shirt, ruffled hair, and jeans.

“You’re late.”

“Nico ditched work before I could get an address from him,” Will explained. He gave a shake of his head, then handed Mitchell the pizza. “I had to wait for him to text me back.”

Mitchell gave a soft laugh. “You mean you didn’t memorize my address the first time I called?”

“I figured it would be a little creepy to memorize a stranger’s address, even _after_ we declared our love to each other,” Will replied, smiling at him.

“Maybe a little,” Mitchell agreed. He stepped back. “Do you want to come in?”

“Since you and Nico orchestrated a whole scheme to get us on a date, why not?” Will tucked the bottle of Diet Pepsi he’d carried up under his arm and stepped into the apartment. “Did you know he got Hestia in on this plan of yours?”

“He might have mentioned it.”

Mitchell led Will deeper into the apartment and gestured for him to sit down on the couch in front of the television. He had plates and cups ready for the pizza he’d ordered, sitting on the coffee table. “Want to watch a movie?”

“Sure.”

Will made himself comfortable on the couch and reached for the cups to pour the soda as Mitchell grabbed the remote to find a movie on Netflix. After a bit of discussion, they settled on a movie, settled back, and started to split the pizza.

“Hand me a napkin?” Mitchell asked, after taking a bite of his slice.

Will picked up a couple of napkin, handing one to Mitchell and keeping one for himself. Mitchell turned his attention to the movie for a moment, taking another bite of his pizza. He’d barely swallowed when Will tapped his shoulder and handed him another napkin. It wasn’t folded, so Mitchell could see Will’s neat handwriting on the flimsy paper. Mitchell set down his plate and took the napkin in his hands and reading it.

“ _‘I think we’d make a great combo’_ ,” he read aloud. He looked up at Will and gave him a slight smile. “I didn’t order extra cheese, Will.”

“On the house,” Will replied with a smile of his own.

Mitchell laughed and thanked Will before the two of them settled back down to watch the movie. They ended up talking through most of it, learning about each other, laughing with each other, and overall enjoying each others’ company. They finished the pizza and breadsticks, polished off the Diet Pepsi, and, after the movie, raided Mitchell’s freezer for ice cream to top off the night. Will had to leave eventually. It was late and he needed to get back to the dorm he lived in on campus.

“We should do this again,” he said as he pulled his jacket on. He gave Mitchell an easy, light-hearted smile. “I’ve got an exam on Monday, but if you’re free around three, maybe we can go out?”

“I’d love to,” Mitchell replied. He put their dishes into the sink and tossed away the garbage, making sure he didn’t throw away the napkin Will had written his note on. He was going to put that with the others. “You have my number. Call me when you get out of your exam.”

Will gave a nod. “I will.”

Mitchell went with him to the door to see Will off for the night. “Drive careful. I’ll see you Monday.”

“Yeah.” Will stepped out the door before pausing and turning to face Mitchell. He leaned in and pressed a light kiss against the other teen’s cheek. “Good night.”

Mitchell caught hold of Will’s shirt. “You know, a proper good night kiss should be on the lips,” he told the older teen before catching Will’s lips in a soft kiss. He kept it chaste, just enough to fulfill the good night kiss requirements and leaving Will wanting more. He smiled softly against Will’s lips before pulling away. “Good night, Will.”

“I’ll keep the good night kiss advice in mind for next time,” Will promised. He headed down the hall to the elevator so he could leave, waving back at Mitchell as he stepped into the elevator.

Mitchell headed back into the apartment to grab his phone so he could text Nico to let him know it had been a successful night. He’d thrown away his personal rule about not dating guys who took his pizza orders and it had turned out great. Part of him had the feeling that Travis’ wish for the next guy to be better for him was going to turn out just as great.

Who said pizza parlors didn’t delivery true love?

 


End file.
